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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 2 of 12

Literary Devices

Irony, symbolism and point of view

What your child practices

Naming devices like simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, foreshadowing and symbolism in short excerpts, and identifying a narrator's point of view.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 8.3; 8.4 · irony, symbolism and point of view

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Simile (like or as), metaphor (is), personification (human traits) and hyperbole (exaggeration) are figurative language.
  2. Irony is a gap between what is said or expected and what is real. Foreshadowing hints at later events.
  3. A symbol stands for a bigger idea. Second person speaks to the reader as you.

Example: “Her words were daggers.” Which device is this? Words are compared to daggers without like or as. That makes it a metaphor. Answer: Metaphor

Literary Devices in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 2 of 12 in 8th grade English Language Arts, after Close Reading and before Word Study.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    The mountain stood, patient and unmoved, as the storm raged at its feet.

    • Irony
    • Personification
    • Alliteration
    • Simile

  2. Question 2

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    The classroom was a zoo before the teacher walked in.

    • Simile
    • Irony
    • Personification
    • Metaphor

  3. Question 3

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    As she opened the old photo album, Ana remembered the summer she turned ten, when the lake froze early.

    • Irony
    • Foreshadowing
    • Metaphor
    • Flashback

  4. Question 4

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    The pilot, who was afraid of flying, wrote a book called Fearless Skies.

    • Onomatopoeia
    • Simile
    • Irony
    • Personification

  5. Question 5

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    The audience gasped when the lights went out: the one thing the magician had promised would never happen.

    • Alliteration
    • Foreshadowing
    • Verbal irony
    • Situational irony

  6. Question 6

    Which point of view is used?

    You open the box and your hands begin to tremble.

    • First person
    • Second person
    • Third person limited
    • Third person omniscient

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